4+ years of experience in software quality assurance / quality engineering, including test strategy, test design, and test execution across multiple projects or products
1+ years of experience leading or driving QA / quality engineering practices at a team or organizational level (e.g., QA lead, quality architect, or similar role)
Proven experience establishing or significantly improving QA practices in environments without a mature QA function (e.g., introducing standards, automation, and processes from scratch)
Strong hands-on experience with test automation for APIs and/or UIs using mainstream frameworks and languages (e.g., Java, .NET, JavaScript/TypeScript, Python)
Demonstrated experience integrating automated tests into CI/CD pipelines and defining quality gates (e.g., coverage thresholds, automated regression suites, static analysis)
Experience communicating across technical and non-technical audiences, in Japanese
High level of emotional intelligence and a track record of effectively coaching and influencing engineers and technical leads without direct line authority
Strong understanding of non-functional testing concepts (e.g., performance, reliability, security, usability) and how to incorporate them into solution design and delivery
Comfortable and effective when working in a virtual and distributed environment